


Journey

by Not_You



Series: It's Weird When Shaw Is Nice [14]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Engagement, F/M, M/M, Multi, Puppy Love, Travel, state visit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-16
Updated: 2012-12-16
Packaged: 2017-11-21 05:54:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/594199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Not_You/pseuds/Not_You
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Off to Wakanda.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Journey

Of course David is upset when Azari has to leave, and Charles cuddles him while he cries for hours, and Cook makes his very favorite dessert, which is the first thing anyone can coax him into eating all day. Mother and Father also cuddle him, and they all fall asleep in the big bed together. Anya worries so much that she cries a little, too, even though she's so much older. But David is better in the morning. He wakes up giggling and happy, because he says he and Azari shared the same dream and picked stars in an orchard together.

Father chuckles. "And what did you do with the stars, little jewel?"

"We ate them, of course."

Erik laughs and kisses David's head and things are all right again. Father and T'Challa send many letters back and forth, and Father shows them to Anya. All their marriages will be arranged, but Father will do everything he can to find someone they like. After all, Grandfather did the same for him. When they had needed to ally themselves with the chosen people, Grandfather had chosen the relatively unimportant Lensherr family because their son was beautiful, talented, and learned enough to keep up with Father. Since David and Azari get on so well and T'Challa is more interested in maintaining Wakanda's friendship with the Shaws than in advancing any particular agenda, this will hopefully be a very similar match.

"He's already very rich," Father says, "so we can't give him any wealth, but we can exchange ideas and go to their aid if they're attacked."

"I see," Anya says, looking over the letter. "Are we going to visit them?" She has always wanted to travel, and is delighted to be answered in the affirmative. It's a long and expensive journey, though, so they wait to bring David down for the first round of gift-giving and ceremony until the baby Alex had written about so excitedly is born. It's early autumn, but Father's men can reach the frontier and hold the line for a while before he joins them, since it's the same every year and Janos is an excellent field commander even if he is mute. So on a day when a cool wind is blowing they load themselves into the carriage that will take them and their baggage down to Highport on the border of the inland sea that divides the continent into its drastically different northern and southern halves. It's possible to get almost anywhere in the world from Highport. There are ship captains, teleportation specialists (expensive and dangerous), and even an aerie of giant eagles that carry baggage or passengers in huge, strong nets. It sounds amazing, but also scary and absolutely nothing anyone should be doing with two little babies. The twins have grown strong and fat and can sit up now, but they're still very little, so Father has charted a ship. And also has some surprise for either Mother or Charles, because he's got the faint suggestions of one of his smug, sweet smiles around the corners of his mouth.

The porters have gotten just about everything aboard when Anya starts seeing trunks she doesn't recognize, in a style a lot like the one favored in Westchester. And then Charles is calling, "Raven!" All decorum forgotten as he rushes to embrace a lovely blonde lady in a blue gown. Father isn't the only one who shows her letters, and Anya claps her hands with pure glee to at last meet her Aunt Raven face to face. She is very much deprived of extended family. All those that are hers by blood are dead (or never born, Mother is an only child), and Charles's stepfather must be a terrible man, because not even Charles has anything kind to say about him.

Aunt Raven is overjoyed to be here, and Anya is glad that her stepfather is finally letting her go somewhere. She dotes on the twins as well as David and Anya, and seems happiest when she's by the railing and can let the salt wind blow her hair back. She's sad because she knows she'll never be anything like free until she's married, and that her stepfather won't choose like Father would. Anya and David keep her company, helping with the sorrow she carries around. She has never been to Wakanda either, and is also looking forward to meeting Alex and Angel and D'warin's baby.

It takes three weeks to cross the sea, and that's with the poling spells on. Not on full strength, since that's expensive and they're not in enough of a dire hurry, but they can still feel the forward surges of the ship as the magic strikes off the bottom. The crew are all from the borderlands, looking a bit like Angel's portrait with their straight dark hair and mysterious eyes and skin in myriad warm shades of brown. Anya decides that the borderlanders are a handsome people, and tells her father so. He just laughs. "It's because they get stock from both halves of the continent. No one on the border is pure anything anymore, so the edges are smoothed out."

Anya ponders this as she examines Angel's daughter the day they arrive. Alex is her second father, D'Warin the one who sired this sweet little begetting girl with curls almost the same pale brown as her skin. They haven't met Angel before, but she is gracious and a little arch and altogether lovely. Really, she's a bit like Mother, and Anya isn't surprised to see her get along very well with Father. Mercifully, after the silliness with Lady Frost, Mother doesn't take it amiss, and just teases Alex and dandles the baby. Charles and D'Warin are talking about myth cycles, and Aunt Raven is sitting on one of the woven seats with a gangly visiting scholar who is absolutely the palest person in Wakanda, even with Anya's family present, listening in fascination to whatever it is he's telling her.


End file.
